Build your own QR code!

A QR code is a (usually black and white) square graphic, like the one on this page. Typically, it holds a description of a web address, so that if you point a smartphone at it, it can decode the web address from the pattern, and jump straight to that web page. Try it with the one on this page!

You can make one yourself for your own web address – just follow these steps.

Go to the Google URL shortener, here: http://www.goo.gl

Enter the address you want a QR code for, and press ‘Shorten URL’

This will make you a URL like this, http://goo.gl/SJTP9 which if you click on, will take you to your website. Copy that, and paste it into your web browser’s address bar. Before you press ‘Go’ to load the URL, put “.qr” on the end, like this: http://goo.gl/SJTP9.qr

Load that address, then one with .qr on the end, in your web browser.

That will take you to a page containing your QR graphic. Right click on the image to save it to your PC, and from there you can use it on your website or promotional material.

Done! Now try it out. On some phones, a QR reader is built in; on iPhones, “QR Reader” is a simple and free QR code reader that you can get from the AppStore; on Android, try “QR Droid”, another free app.